Major Factors Affecting Investment Inflow to Hawassa City Administration: The Law and Practice

Abstract

The research was conducted on the implementation of investment laws by different investment organs of government by taking Hawassa city as a focus area. It studied what legal and institutional factors affect investment inflows in the city. At the same time it studied the different issues faced by investors and those who have relation to investments. The research applied a qualitative case study. The Ethiopian legal system has made changes to the investment laws in last ten years in order to attract investment. So it was wise to see the implementation of the laws at the city level. The practice of the laws has seen many issues echoed by different groups and research works. Investment is affected by many factors such as lack of strong, efficient and effective institutions; corruption and the gap that are created in the laws are some of them. The laws have to be implemented to their fullest in order to achieve their goals. The country has been attracting investment and has become a destination for foreign direct investment. Hawassa as well has become a center for investment in Ethiopia among major cities. For a better investment inflow to the city and the country one has to see the implementation of the different investment laws. The first chapter is about factors that affect investment and the core issues that needed to be addressed. Chapter two shows the policy framework of the investment laws with regard to incentives, sectors of investment, procedure of acquiring investment permits and powers of the investment board and agency. On this chapter I have shown the problems that are faced by investors and investment bureaus with the service provision, access to land and also incentives. The chapter also shows the loopholes in the law that need to be addressed.